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Puerto Rican Doctors Sought in Medical Fraud Inquiry

SAN JUAN, P.R., Aug. 4 (AP) — The federal authorities are searching for nine suspects amid an investigation of dozens of doctors accused of obtaining their licenses through fraud.

A federal grand jury indicted 91 people in the case Wednesday, including a former director and a secretary of the Puerto Rico medical licensing board. A total of 88 people were accused of having obtained medical credentials by fraud.

The authorities say the doctors flunked their certification exams — more than a dozen times in some cases — and then had the results falsified. Members of the island’s medical licensing board are accused of recycling old passing exams under the name of the failed candidates from 2001 to 2005, according to the indictments.

Among the nine still being sought, three were believed to be in Puerto Rico and five in Philadelphia, Florida and the Dominican Republic, said Jose Ruiz, an assistant United States attorney.

Mr. Ruiz said the investigation could produce charges against more people.

The father of one of the suspects, Gilberto Rodríguez, himself a doctor, was jailed on a witness tampering charge, accused of threatening to kill anyone who cooperated with investigators. A notice taped to the door of his medical practice in a San Juan strip mall said he was away “on vacation” until Monday.

A government official who serves as a patient advocate appealed for calm as rattled islanders checked their doctors’ qualifications.

“The accusations against these doctors have grave implications for the health and lives of the patients treated by these professionals,” said the official, Luz Teresa Amador.

Patterns of repeated test scores suggest that the cheating began much earlier than first suspected, Mr. Ruiz said.

“It was a pretty blatant scheme,” said Mr. Ruiz, who added that investigators were trying to locate rosters from before 2001. “We believe this has happened before.”

Some of the doctors gave board members gifts or cash payments of as much as $10,000, but others had their scores changed free, according to the indictment.

About 60 percent of the defendants are Puerto Rican, and the vast majority received medical training overseas in countries including the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Cuba. At least 75 were practicing medicine in Puerto Rico, the authorities said.

One of the doctors, Arcelio Torres, a plastic surgeon, previously boasted of treating the acne of Denise Quiñones before she was crowned Miss Puerto Rico and then Miss Universe in 2001.

Mr. Ruiz said that the authorities would focus on gleaning information from the doctors already indicted and that more arrests were likely in a few weeks. The defendants face charges including mail fraud and making false statements to Medicare and, if convicted, face prison sentences of 5 to 20 years.

The Caribbean territory’s licensing board said states including Florida, New York and Texas recognize Puerto Rican medical licenses, but the local Health Department said none of the suspects were known to have practiced medicine in the mainland United States.

A version of this article appears in print on , on page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Puerto Rican Doctors Sought in Medical Fraud Inquiry. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe